New York Times

Vanity Fair

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CNBC

Geoffrey Moore

Joseph Pine

The Pay It Forward Project

I began my tech career in a factory in Evansville, IN as the sole “geek” living in a condemned (yes – it actually was condemned) apartment building with my wife who was finishing her nursing degree. How things have changed from that humble beginning.

Pay-It-Forward

When I look back on my career and where it has brought us, there is no way we can pay back the time and support I received from my mentors. Therefore, we have committed ourselves to find ways to take what we’ve been blessed with and to pay it forward.

So my wife and I will donate 100% of the royalties from my book, Beyond The Obvious, that is purchased before the end of the year to charity.

100% of All Author Royalties To Charity

So what do you need to do? Purchase the book (hardcover, digital or audio version) before the end of the year. That’s it! Whatever author royalties I receive will go to charity. If you are interested in purchasing bulk copies of the book to give away (e.g. to your employees, customers, friends, etc) Amazon and Barnes & Noble are able to accommodate.

Stay updated on the project ….

If you want to direct which charity receives the money based on your purchase(s), then forward your receipt to the email address assigned to one of the charities we are sponsoring this year:

If you email your receipt, you will receive a reply that contains a link to a special “thank you” gift.

What Charities?

Hacking Autism

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Autism is a full-blown global epidemic. It is the fastest-growing childhood developmental disease.

More children will be diagnosed with autism this year than with AIDS, diabetes and cancer combined.

1 in 88 children are now diagnosed with this condition in the U.S.

It’s time we hacked autism.

To that end, in May 2011, I announced the formation of a new organization — Hacking Autism. Hacking Autism is about leveraging the community to volunteer their time and talent to help create solutions (e.g. software applications) that gives people with autism a voice. It’s a social initiative for advancing and making accessible the technology that can hack away at the challenges people with autism face daily. There are many excellent solutions that already exist and the site contains information on some. Yet there is much that still needs to be done.

Together, we can create solutions that impact peoples lives.

Hacking Autism operates as a program within Autism Speaks. If you want to support the effort, please make a donation at Autism Speaks and direct it to be used for the Hacking Autism program.

ishimwe (Rwanda)

Ishimwe means ‘Give thanks to God’ in Kinyarwanda, the language of Rwanda. This adventure was founded in 2003 by Roger & Faith Shaw. Faith’s traumatic childhood prepared her for ministry of rescuing abandoned children. First and foremost, she herself was a refugee separated from her parents after fleeing Rwanda’s first genocide.

In 1994, Faith and Roger watched Rwanda’s second genocide unfold on the TV news. It was a horrifying event resulting in the murder of 800,000 people. The aftermath was heart breaking. Among many awful tragedies, thousands of children were left without anyone to care for them. This painful reality weighed heavily on the hearts of Faith & Roger and they recalled how someone had helped Faith when she had been a child in need. They couldn’t quite reconcile their comfortable family life in California with the suffering of so many abandoned children in Rwanda.

Faith and Roger sold everything and moved to Rwanda to lead the child rescue efforts at Ishimwe.

The Ishimwe Center depends on donations from generous people with a heart for abandoned children.

The River Church

Lyons Colorado was devastated with the recent flooding. The town and its residents are still without basic services.

Before the flood

After the flood

The River Church was also devastated but through the storm, this church has stepped up to help this community. While the major relief organizations have pulled out now that the national new cycle of the flooding has passed, The River is stepping in to help this community recover.

So why is this different from other relief efforts? Every dollar (100%) of money raised will be spent for disaster relief for Lyons. Many other relief funds have heavy administrative costs. This is an opportunity for people to know exactly where their money will be spent.

Retired HP CTO, Author, Speaker, Innovation Mentor, Columnist at Forbes. Phil McKinney has held technology and innovation leadership positions in a number of leading companies and has been profiled in media outlets. His first book, Beyond The Obvious, was released February 2012.

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The Killer Innovation podcast and seminars/workshops are about helping innovators get better at innovating. A killer innovation is a significant and highly profitable departure from current offerings or practices that would be difficult to duplicate. It’s a game changer!